Toru Takemitsu Composition Award

My name is Brian Ferneyhough, the judge of the 2022 Toru Takemitsu Composition Award. It has been an honor and not inconsiderable challenge to confront seventy-nine works and access their sometimes very different aesthetic qualities and approaches to the complex and rich medium that is the orchestra.

The composition of an extended orchestral work is surely always a labor of love, given the amount of effort and planning involved. This lengthy gestation is naturally reflected in several ways in the creative strategies employed, not least the manner in which form and continuity are assured.

In examining this number of works I found myself reflecting that adventurousness was not infrequently neglected in favor of tried and true orchestral techniques and textures. Many of these works are, indeed, by that measure, extremely assured and idiomatic, but perhaps pay the price of a lesser individuality.

However, I am sure that it goes without saying that no one person can pretend to offer objective assessments. I have done my best to balance out what I felt were a given piece’s intentions against the degree to which these intentions were reflected in the final work.

I am very sorry that Covid considerations have prevented my attendance at this impressive event. I would like to sincerely thank the organizers, the Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation, and, above all, Mr. Jun Sawahashi, whose extraordinary organizational skills and unfaltering patience prevailed throughout. I am indebted to him more than I can say. Also, great thanks to the brilliant musicians, and of course their conductor. But last not least, the composers themselves. If it had been up to me I would have liked at least three concerts instead of one. As an older composer I prize highly contact with young talent. May this composition award long continue.

I did not know Toru Takemitsu very well. We met during the jury work for an International Society of Contemporary Music Festival in Hong Kong. I found him a charming and modest man. I would like to include here a little anecdote. It has probably not escaped your attention that composers are mostly not particularly sartorially punctilious. I myself, for instance, have not worn a necktie for thirty years.

One evening at the Festival we were due to attend a grand dinner together. I was very agitated that I could not fulfill the main stipulation, namely, that neckties were obligatory. Observing my disquiet, Takemitsu asked me to wait while he went back up to his hotel room, descending a few moments later brandishing a necktie which he kindly let me borrow for the evening. I have therefore always remembered him as the only composer I have ever known who travelled not with one, but with two neckties in his luggage. Thank you, Toru!

I would like at this point to speak briefly about the four pieces played in this concert, and I will take them in the order in which they were played.

Takuto Muromoto: KEBESU - Circle of Flame for orchestra
I’ve made some notes to myself which were: imaginative antiphonal use of orchestral layout, both in terms of dramatic exchanges and increasing transparency, is displayed. Local timing of gestures and textures is convincing, less so perhaps the extended ending. There is a confident use of instrumental resources making the overall colors fresh.

Andrea Mattevi: Comune il principio e la fine del cerchio for symphonic orchestra
This composer has excellent sense of harmony and sonority. The piece sustains its overall form well without being predictable. Its material is varied so as to build new contexts without direct repetition, giving the impression that the composer is very comfortable with the potential of his means, and well aware of the need for stringent formal planning.

Omar Hernández Lazo: Inflamado de una álgida lejanía
I personally welcome the composer’s decision to limit his compositional palette in order to the better subtly manipulate balance and timbre. Right from the outset it is clear that we are meant to focus on the interior of the sounds. This means an intentional abandonment of formal expectations. I would be very interested to learn how the composer understood the flow of his vertical alignments. Very sensitive use of the orchestra however as a complex resource.

Mehmet Özkan: Intermezzo for Orchestra "Anarchical Lament"
This piece takes many risks, both in its sound world and the manner in which textures are confronted and interwoven. Good! I am however doubtful that the ‘anarchic’ aspect is deployed effectively in formal terms: perhaps the sections could have varied more in length so as to emphasize dramatic tension. The cadential pauses were to my mind too ‘conventional’ and allowed the tension to dissipate.

Now to the announcement of the prizes. I decided to divide the prize money into four, with two composers sharing the third prize.

In joint third place, with an award of 300,000 yen, I nominate Mr. Mehmet Özkan with his Intermezzo for Orchestra "Anarchical Lament".

Likewise in joint third prize, with an award of 300,000 yen, Mr. Omar Hernández Lazo: Inflamado de una álgida lejanía.

In second place, with an award of 1,000,000 yen, Mr. Andrea Mattevi of Italy: Comune il principio e la fine del cerchio.

In first place this year, with a premium of 1,400,000 yen, I selected Mr. Takuto Muromoto: KEBESU - Circle of Flame for orchestra.

Congratulations to everyone, and a job well done!

Edited by Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation